Social media boundaries in sports journalism: individual and organisational gatekeeping in India and Australia

Abstract

Journalists with social media accounts can face conflict between the personal nature of their posts while operating as representatives of their news organisations. The addition of another publishing platform has also continued to change the role of the journalist as gatekeeper, with more decisions to be made over dissemination choices in traditional, online and social media. This comparative study of sports journalists in India and Australia examines gatekeeping influences at individual and organisational levels. It combines in-depth interviews with 22 sports journalists with a content analysis of 2085 Twitter posts from sports journalists covering the Australia–India Test cricket series of 2014–2015. The results highlight how multi-media gatekeeping has become a factor for contemporary sports journalists in both nations.